Tourism is on the COP31 agenda in Antalya, Türkiye, on 18 November, with zero waste and the circular economy now firmly part of the climate action conversation. So what does a circular economy for tourism look like in practice? This week on The Circular Economy Show, Pippa is joined by Patricia Dueñas from Iberostar Hotels & Resorts and Virginia Fernández-Trapa from UN Tourism. Together, they make the case that circular tourism needs local infrastructure, consistent policy, coordination at destination level and a proven business case. That makes the year ahead an important one. With 2027 named the UN’s International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism, businesses and destinations have a chance to take this on together.
Tourism is on the COP31 agenda in Antalya, Türkiye, on 18 November, with zero waste and the circular economy now firmly part of the climate action conversation. So what does a circular economy for tourism look like in practice?
This week on The Circular Economy Show, Pippa is joined by Patricia Dueñas from Iberostar Hotels & Resorts and Virginia Fernández-Trapa from UN Tourism. Together, they make the case that circular tourism needs local infrastructure, consistent policy, coordination at destination level and a proven business case.
That makes the year ahead an important one. With 2027 named the UN’s International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism, businesses and destinations have a chance to take this on together.
Here’s the link to the white paper discussed in the episode: https://waveofchange.com/resource/circular-tourism-in-practice/
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[00:00:00.050] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
It's really not only about reducing waste, but about rethinking how tourism can create value for a territory.
[00:00:07.660] - Pippa Shawley
How can the tourism sector embed circular principles? And why is circularity central to its long-term competitiveness? Welcome to The Circular Economy Show. I'm Pippa. And today I'm joined by Patricia Dueñas from Iberostar and Virginia Fernández Trapper from UN Tourism to explore the opportunities and challenges the tourism sector faces in embedding circular principles. We'll discuss the white paper developed earlier this year by Circle Economy and Iberostar Hotels and Resorts in collaboration with UN Tourism, which highlights practical pathways towards a circular model and how momentum is building around this topic. Well, welcome both to The Circular Economy Show. It's great to have you here and great to be talking about tourism. And I wonder, Virginia, if you could start us off by telling us why the tourism sector is such a good opportunity for leveraging circularity?
[00:01:01.360] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
So, we really think that the sector is a high-leverage sector for circularity because it is actually one of the world's largest and most interconnected economic activities we are talking about. The tourism sector operates at significant scale and is also growing continuously. For example, in 2025, international tourist arrivals reached 1.5 billion. That's 4% more than the previous year. And we know that in global GDP terms, which of course also take into account domestic tourism, this contribution is 3.4%. This is a direct contribution. If we look at the sector in direct, indirect, and induced terms, then it goes much higher. And I guess that being so large, it makes the way tourism uses resources and creates value increasingly important. We need to look at this very closely. It's a service sector, but it's depending on a wide range of materials, of resources, and of value chains. That gives the sector significant potential to shape and accelerate, I would say, circular business models, whether they are in connection to food, water, energy, furniture, textiles, etc. And last point would be that tourism is deeply connected to destinations, destinations where we operate and where we enjoy when we travel.
[00:02:37.640] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
This notion of place is where circularity can connect business priorities with local needs, where we can really look into value creation. So it's really not only about reducing waste, but about rethinking how tourism can create value for a territory, whether through jobs, through efficiency, resilience, innovation, or competitiveness.
[00:03:00.250] - Pippa Shawley
That's great, and that's where I want to bring Patricia in, because Iberostar is a big player in the tourism sector and owns lots of resorts. So can you give us a little bit of a background of who Iberostar is, but also why you're focusing on circularity?
[00:03:15.720] - Patricia Dueñas
Yes, thank you so much, Pippa, for the opportunity of being here. As you said, for tourism business, Circularity is a significant strategic opportunity. We are in a strong position to influence change well beyond our own operations, as Virginia was saying. And at Iberostar Hotels& Resorts, this is closely linked on how we really understand our role as a tourism business. Iberostar Hotels& Resorts is the hotel division and the core business of Iberostar Group. A family-owned Spanish multinational company with 70 years of history. And this is where the scale really matters. Today, we operate around 100 hotels across 14 countries. Through our Iberostar Wave of Change movement, launched in 2017, we work to align exceptional quality and profitable growth with environmental stewardship and social impact. And our agenda is really guided by science and data, supported by a team around 30 scientists and sustainability experts that are working with leading external partners. And circularity is definitely an important driver of this agenda because it really runs across our entire business model and the value chains. So it really invites us as a business model to rethink how we design our operations, how we build and renovate our hotels, how we need to shape the guest experience and collaborate with the suppliers, with the destination.
[00:04:49.080] - Patricia Dueñas
And in doing so, it really creates tangible business opportunities. So first of all, it starts with efficiency. Circularity helps us really to prevent waste, to use resources more efficiently, to keep products and material in use and use assets for longer. We see this every day across water, energy, waste management. For example, we use AI-assisted systems in around 60 kitchens today to reduce food waste at source, so at the beginning. Circularity also helps us really to be build a stronger and more resilient value chain, anticipating regulatory changes and working with suppliers to redesign solutions. We can really reduce risk and adapt faster. We experienced this when we eliminated single-use plastic from our operations in 2020 ahead of regulation in several of our destinations. And also, circularity is a key lever for Scope 3 decarbonization, and it really represents more than our 70% of carbon footprint. So it's really relevant. And so it's critical around assets and it's critical around destinations. We have already co-created more than 10 circular solutions with local partners, creating value not only for the business but for the local economies, for the communities and ecosystems where we operate.
[00:06:12.710] - Pippa Shawley
And you published a paper earlier this year that dives into those opportunities a bit more. Before we get into those More deeply, can we have a little bit of a sense of what the barriers have been to applying circular methods so far?
[00:06:27.840] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
Well, I mean, we were saying tourism is fundamentally a sector of relationships. We have the businesses, we have the suppliers, the visitors, the host communities, the destinations, the ecosystems. And this diversity of stakeholders, I would say, is one of the sector's strengths when looking at circularity. But it can also represent one of the challenges because implementing circular solutions requires coordination among all these stakeholders and often also with stakeholders that are beyond the traditional tourism value chain. So we need to open up the mindset and start working really at the destination level. And, you know, circularity is about closing the loop. So how are we going to close the loop if the stakeholders are not having a high degree of coordination at destination level? So for me, that would be one of the barriers. Obviously, infrastructure and the availability of infrastructure is a critical point, especially if we look at remote destinations or islands. We all know how frustrating it can be for a business to make great efforts to separate waste and without local capacity for it to be reused or recycled, then the loop cannot be closed. So the circular solution is never fully completed.
[00:07:45.310] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
Then, of course, policy and incentives are also very important where, um, circular solutions require upfront investment. Consistency in policies helps reassure the investor, and or where regulatory approaches are, uh, very different among destinations. So stronger policies can help us make, um, a higher confidence of those operating. I guess that's why, um, We need to move from, you know, beyond ad hoc initiatives into a more systemic way of approaching circularity. Actually, you alluded to the paper a few minutes ago. This was one of the central conclusions of the white paper released by Circular Economy and Iberostar together with UN Tourism at the beginning of this year. Individual businesses can lead and they can innovate, but at the end of the day, if we want systemic transformation, it really requires collective action. policy frameworks, investment, etc.
[00:08:52.680] - Pippa Shawley
Thanks, Virginia. And let's get into those opportunities a bit more, which were laid out in the paper. Patricia, do you want to start us off with maybe— I mean, I've got the list in front of me, so maybe we start off with circular procurement. Where does that come in?
[00:09:07.920] - Patricia Dueñas
Starting with circular procurement, here the opportunity is really to rethink products and materials from the outset and integrate circularity criteria into purchasing decisions. So, as an example, since 2020, we have resold more than 1,000 individual items together with our value chain, particularly through our work to eliminate single-use plastic and unnecessary packaging. And now we are taking that further by developing practical tools such as our circular packaging guidelines based on the Ellen MacArthur guidelines as well, to embed circularity more systematically into procurement decisions. Prevention is key and procurement has a great power. So this is key in procurement. So select the battles and integrate into tender process, I may say.
[00:09:59.430] - Pippa Shawley
And the next one is circular operations. So what does that mean in this context?
[00:10:05.280] - Patricia Dueñas
In this context, circular operation is about how we use resources more efficiently and how we run hotels every day. So in our approach, investing in people has been central. We have 3R teams, a dedicated function focused on reducing waste and recovering value from resources in the hotels. More than 250 people that demonstrate that having accountability about waste, measuring, understanding it, is really a tool to being able to better manage, reduce, and reuse in the long term. So in 2025, we diverted 79% of our waste from landfill. But of course, it's about all resources. Waste is just at the end of the equation. We need to think about water. We need to think about energy. How can we do better? At the end, it's an efficiency opportunity for the hotels.
[00:10:59.580] - Pippa Shawley
It's a big challenge, isn't it? Another part of that, which I think probably ties in with what you were saying about water, is the circular built environment. I don't know, Virginia, if you want to come in here or Patricio, you want to carry on?
[00:11:13.610] - Patricia Dueñas
I can give just an example and then leave it to Virginia. Based on our understanding here, circularity needs to be considered again at the early beginning, in the moment that we design, construct, or renovate the assets, the hotel, because then we have the operations and the opportunity to make it more efficient. But the ability really to transform the system and the way that we operate starts also when we design. We have our sustainable design and construction manual that really includes more than 100 measures, and we are testing this in our Joya Aruba, for example, applying these principles helped us to divert almost 50% of construction waste from landfill. So this is a learning from us too.
[00:11:54.740] - Pippa Shawley
And next, Patricia, could you talk us through the circular business culture and experiences? What does that mean?
[00:12:03.280] - Patricia Dueñas
The reality is we have hotels that are full of employees, full of customers. It's all about people, and circularity only becomes truly embedded when our people apply it in the everyday decision and when guests really experience this circularity in a natural way as part of a high-quality experience and a high-quality stay. So, a simple example is our network of more than 1,300 water refill stations, which has helped us really to eliminate the need of single-use PET water bottles. This is really a small and silly example, but it's a huge transformation in the way that we operate. And importantly, 78% of our guests positively value our actions to eliminate single-use plastic. So measuring the impact that we are— of the actions that we are doing in operations is also relevant to build a case, to showcase that it's possible.
[00:12:59.550] - Pippa Shawley
And it must be really reassuring when you hear back from your customers that the things you're doing because they're the right things to do for the planet and your business are also coming across well to them and they're finding them useful. I mean, just being able to refill your bottle instead of having to go and buy a bottle of water, that's good customer experience, isn't it?
[00:13:18.300] - Patricia Dueñas
Definitely it is. And it requires also a behavioral change within the operations in order to transform the way that we operate, the way that we design the customer experience in the early beginning. And then we need to make them enjoy the experience. So, It's a challenge, but you have the opportunities there. So, sorry, Virginia.
[00:13:42.290] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
No, no, absolutely. You know, no need to apologize. Circularity should be part of the experience. It's actually when it becomes visible, when it becomes intuitive, when it becomes desirable that it would stay with the customer, with the client, and hopefully even translate into the reality of that person when he or she is back home. We see the potential of tourism also, let's say, as a playground to pilot circular solutions where one can experience them firsthand and hopefully then have a greater appetite to become a more circular consumer.
[00:14:22.720] - Pippa Shawley
It's quite a powerful idea, isn't it, that all your holidaymakers turning up at an Iberostar resort or, you know, other hotel chains around the world could go home and be ambassador for best practice when they go home. I think the final point for your paper, for the opportunities, was circular destinations. And it was speaking to some of the things that you said earlier, Virginia, about working with local authorities and investing in restoration of nature, and also working with local circular initiatives. So are there any examples of that within Iberostar? Iberostar's network, Patricia?
[00:15:03.820] - Patricia Dueñas
Yes, for sure. And there are so many examples because it's part of the learning process and the understanding that many of the systems and infrastructures, as hotels, depend really on the capacity of the destination. So transformation cannot stop at the hotel boundary. For example, in Brazil, we achieved 100% valorization on organic waste from our hotel with a local partner. So thanks to co-creating a solution with our local partners, that enable also others to access the solution. Another example from Mexico, in Quintana Roo, where we develop a zero-waste guide for the hotel sector, and we are co-creating solutions to foster circularity in waste streams. Another example from Aruba, where we are creating the Compost Alliance. So, there are so many examples. The relevance here is focus on the reality of the destination. So, Each destination is unique. Then we need to have the ability to understand on a scale and have systemic solutions, as Virginia was mentioning, but understanding the uniqueness of the destination and co-creating the solution with the local partners for us is critical.
[00:16:13.560] - Pippa Shawley
So, Patricia, you've mentioned quite a few different locations there in different countries. How difficult is it to have this kind of impact and development in those in the variety of geographies you work in?
[00:16:28.430] - Patricia Dueñas
It's difficult because it really requires to put people and time at the service of destinations and really understand the uniqueness of the destinations from the local perspective. We have an incredible team, Destination Stewardship, that enable us to understand which are the main challenges, which are the main opportunities, and they are articulating solutions at destination level in order to co-create with the network, with the partners. The part of pre-competitive alliance, international collaborations are critical to succeed. No company are going to achieve circularity alone. This is crystal clear.
[00:17:10.080] - Pippa Shawley
Well, that's why I'd like to bring Virginia in, because we've just heard there about the challenge of doing it within one organization. But How do you scale this across the whole tourism sector? What needs to happen?
[00:17:23.290] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
Well, the destinations are where all the elements discussed come together, whether it is procurement, operations, the built environment, or the business culture. It is at the destination that they all intersect. So, of course, as Patricia mentioned, there's no one recipe for every destination's transformation. Nevertheless, proposing frameworks for consistent action helps. Helps. For example, only by flagging these 5 opportunities in the white paper, we're already creating a framework that can help the reflection, and that can help a reflection which is common everywhere. The conclusions will not be common or similar, but at least the process can be, can be guided. The white paper was of course developed having hospitality in the mind as a key target, but it really speaks about hospitality as a stakeholder that can dynamize the relationships throughout the whole of the destination. And, um, also one thing that we like very much about this framework is that the, the different opportunities reinforce one another, so, um, they, they can operate quite in a symbiotic manner. So from our end, UN Tourism, we, we try to use these frameworks to work with our member states to advance, uh, then work at destination level.
[00:18:48.630] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
It's complicated, but we are, uh, we are moving and we are seeing increasing interest from the policymakers on the opportunities that circularity can bring. It's, I mean, it's an economic agenda, first of all, for a business sector which fits quite pertinently, but it's also an environmental agenda and a social one. And yeah, it's quite valued. So we're prioritizing it at PEPA for the last years.
[00:19:16.690] - Pippa Shawley
Well, that's really encouraging to hear that There is that interest and the scale is beginning to start. I wonder, just to finish off, if you could both think about where we might be in 5 or 10 years' time with these recommendations being taken on board at scale. Where could the tourism sector be? Maybe Virginia, you could start with a big picture of what the system could look like, and then Patricia, you could tell us what that would look like in your business, perhaps. So, Virginia?
[00:19:46.550] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
Well, that's an interesting question, Pippa. I hope that 5 years from now we would have managed to scale. And of course, then we will have policies that are combined with measurement, combined with collaboration and stronger capacities and investments. But one needs to take things in a progressive manner. As I was telling you before, we see increasing interest from stakeholders at the political level. For instance, Peru just released a few months ago the first national circular economy roadmap for tourism. So I guess that's a first but not a last. So in 5 years, I would hope to see more of those policies that are specific for tourism because we are normally discussing circularity with environmental authorities that are the ones leading the agenda. So how tourism can, you know, find its way in and how tourism can present circular solutions. I would really like to hope, really hope to see that materialize reducing in 5 years. And then of course we are convinced that by strengthening the policy landscape, the investment will follow. We need to have, as I said earlier, reassurance and provide confidence to the investor about the value of shifting towards circular solutions and business models.
[00:21:09.960] - Virginia Fernández Trapa
And if you allow, I would really like to make, since we are touching the end, a call to action for those working on circularity initiatives in tourism, which for a time being may look fragmented, right? If we want to scale, we really need to work together on building the business case. That is fundamental. And we're not strong in having the data. For example, if we are talking about food, there is clearly a business case for food waste reduction that has been measured and is published and widely available. However, if we're talking about other entry points, for example, plastics or textiles, etc., we still don't have access to really, you know, solid evidence that would prove the business case. I think this would be very important for us to be able to make circularity an investable asset. Therefore, the call to action to everybody listening to us today.
[00:22:07.080] - Pippa Shawley
Thank you. Strong call to action. So you have this sort of two-pronged effect where you need the policy to set everybody up, but you need the business case to drive the actual impact within business and prove that it's not just a lovely idea, it's really good for your organization. Patricia, what if you had a crystal ball, what do you think it will look like in the next 5 years for Iberostar?
[00:22:31.330] - Patricia Dueñas
So in 5 years, I would like to see Iberostar as part of a tourism industry where circularity has become firmly established. As a driver of competitiveness, resilience, and long-term value creation, fully embedded in how we design, source, operate, and invest. And for this to happen, the business case needs to be there, as Virginia was mentioning. So I would also expect prevention and redesign to become business as usual, supported by stronger regulation, infrastructure, economic mechanisms, and common standards that make circular solutions easier at scale. But perhaps the biggest shift will be in how we work together. I would like to see much stronger pre-competitive alliances across the sector, faster, more agile, and much more focused on results. Because as we have been discussing, many of the barriers to circularity cannot be solved by one company alone. And in order to transition into this systemic change, But we need to do it destination by destination with the scalability in mind. And we need to do it with businesses, with suppliers, with public authorities, with local organizations. We need to share circularity agendas and concrete solutions to drive real change. We need to prioritize. We can't do everything.
[00:23:55.840] - Patricia Dueñas
We need really to identify from destination perspective. And we need to do it to create long-term prosperity for people, for businesses, and for the environment.
[00:24:06.400] - Pippa Shawley
Thank you so much to both of you, and I'm really excited to see what happens over the next few years. You can find the white paper we discussed via the link in our show notes. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Circular Economy Show. We'll see you next time.